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Energy-Saving Behaviors

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Unplug

Always turn off your lights and unplug electronics, appliances and chargers when not in use – using power strips makes it easy

• A surprising amount of energy can be used by your electronics even when they’re turned off - standby power accounts for 5% to 10% of total electricity use in most homes and about 1% of global CO2 emissions
•  Unplug battery chargers or power adapters from the wall when equipment is fully charged or disconnected from the charger
• To make unplugging easier, use a power strip as your master “on/off” switch for a variety of products, and keep those ‘energy vampires’ from sucking power when it isn’t needed

Make an adjustment

Set your thermostat lower in winter and higher in summer. Upgrading to a programmable thermostat makes savings automatic

• Programmable thermostats save time, energy and money (up to 10% of your bill) – set it once, and then you can forget about it
• How to set your programmable thermostat:

When you're home:

68° (Winter)

78° (Summer)

When you're sleeping or away:

55° (Winter)

85° (Summer)

Be an energy sleuth

Request a home energy audit from your utility

• An energy audit will help ensure that all the energy in your home is put to good use and you aren’t wasting money
• Sealing and insulating the "envelope" or "shell" of your home — its outer walls, ceiling, windows, doors, and floors — is one of the best ways to improve energy efficiency and comfort
• Some common sources of leaks and drafts are the spaces around doors or windows, and holes in attics, basements, or crawlspaces
• Homeowners can save up to 20% of heating and cooling costs—and up to 10% of total energy costs—just by sealing and insulating

Energy-Saving Products

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Make the switch

Switch to energy-efficient light bulbs and fixtures

• Like setting your programmable thermostat, switching to energy-efficient lighting is a simple change that can have a big impact
• CFLs have improved in quality and variety – you can now find the perfect CFL for almost any of your home’s lighting needs
• CFLs last longer than traditional incandescents—they use 75% less energy and create 75% less heat, so they're safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling
• If each American household replaced its five most frequently used lights with energy-efficient ones, we would save close to $9 billion each year in energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equal to those from nearly 10 million cars
• CFLs do contain a trace amount of mercury, so they don’t go in the trash – check with your utility about recycling and disposal options                                  

Use water sense

Use low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators and wash your clothes in cold water

• Water heating is one of the largest energy users in the home because we need it for so many domestic activities – bathing and washing dishes to name a few
• Look for the EPA’s WaterSense label on products like toilets, faucets and showerheads, which use up to 20% less water
• If you have a gas hot water heater, check out an on demand system. You’ll never run out of hot water again and you won’t be heating water when you aren’t using it

Upgrade to efficiency

When replacing refrigerators, water heaters, dishwashers and clothes washers, choose energy-efficient models

• Upgrading to energy-efficient appliances is a simple, one-time way to save energy—and it can have a huge impact
• When it’s time to replace your major appliances, look for new ones that have the ENERGY STAR label.
• If every refrigerator, dishwasher and clothes washer bought in the U.S. this year were ENERGY STAR qualified, we would prevent 4.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year and save $640 million on our energy bills

Transportation

Explore Your Transport Options

“Chain” up

Link your errands to reduce car trips

• Planning trips ahead of time will ensure you get the most out of your car—and your time!
• Reducing just one car trip per week by linking errands can save [X] lbs of greenhouse gas emissions a year – if everyone in [city] did it, we’d literally take [X] cars off the road!

Get on your feet (or bike)

Walk or bike to destinations nearby

• Reducing just one car trip per week by walking or biking can save [city] residents [X] greenhouse gas emissions a year
• Walking and biking to nearby destinations promotes community, improves health and helps the environment
• Walking and biking saves money on gas – and if done enough, possibly the price of a gym membership!

Share the ride

Carpool or use public transit whenever you can

• Make a friend (or more) and combine trips to work, activities or to run errands
• Driving 10 percent less, by walking, cycling, carpooling, or taking public transit, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by [X] tons per year

Drive Smart

Drive smoothly

Drive the speed limit and avoid sudden braking, accelerating or fast turns

• Driving smoothly promotes fuel efficiency and reduces emissions from our cars up to [X]%
• Driving the speed limit not only saves you gas, it can help keep you safer as well

Turn it off

Don’t ‘idle’ your vehicle when stopped for more than a minute or so

• Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t use up more gas to turn your car off and back on than just turning it off if you’ll be stopped for longer than a couple minutes
• If every [city] motorist avoided idling their vehicles for just five minutes a day, more than [X] tons of carbon dioxide and other toxic substances would be kept out of the air per year

Save gas

Buy a fuel-efficient car or hybrid

• When it’s time to buy a new car, look for models with gas mileage of 25 mpg or above
• Don’t discount used cars—some older models still get good mileage and buying used ensures that more natural resources aren’t being used to make a new car.
• Each gallon of gas burned equals 20 lbs of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
• EPA estimates that a car that gets 25 mpg rather than 20 will prevent the release of about 17 tons of greenhouse gases over its lifetime